


The 90's kids

by Sodap0pblue



Category: Football RPF, Real Person Fiction, Sports RPF, real madrid
Genre: F/M, Father-Son Relationship, Male Friendship, Other, Prank Wars, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Real Madrid CF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-05-07
Packaged: 2018-03-07 20:45:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3182534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sodap0pblue/pseuds/Sodap0pblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Real Madrid 90's kids have created their own secret gang in order to get back at their older teammates. It's time for the new kid, James, to prove he's worthy of becoming a member.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“I’m not a coward!” James shouted, his voice echoing around the walls of his shared hotel room.

“Yes, you are!” Isco retorted, flashing a sadistic smile.

“No, I’m not!”

“Yes, you are!”

That same argument had been going nonstop for the past half an hour, ever since the two boys got back into their room after an early morning training session. Cause of this fight was an incident that took place in the locker room, while the two boys were getting dressed along with Dani, Nacho and Illara.

“Will you guys come to our room tonight? Nacho brought the new call of duty” Dani had suggested, pulling a shirt over his head.

“Sure” Isco agreed for both himself and James who was still trying to dry his hair on a towel.

“Great,” said Nacho and added with a mischievous wink, “We haven’t done a club meeting in a while”

“Club meeting?” James’ head popped from behind his towel. “What club?”

Nacho’s smile faded within the blink of an eye and so did everybody else’s, something that James didn’t fail to notice.

“What’s wrong…?” he asked, looking round at his teammates. They all seemed guilty for some unknown reason.

“Ehh, what the heck, he’d find out either way” Dani recovered before the rest of friends and walked the distance between himself and James, “It’s about time that we tell him” he wrapped an arm around James, squeezing the boy’s shoulder.

“No” Isco jumped forward, “don’t!”, he attempted to push Dani away from James, though he forgot that Dani had to deal with Sergio on daily basis, making his self-defense reflexes above average, so not only he didn’t stop Dani but he almost earned himself a black eye too.

 

 “We have a secret club” Dani announced, right before Isco tackled him down on the floor.

It was that exact behavior that started the fight between the two boys and now almost two hours later, it was still going strong.

 

* * *

 

 

 

“I can’t believe you don’t want me to be a member of your secret club!” cried James bitterly, “I can’t believe you guys even have a secret club!”

“It’s a _secret_ club! Not telling you is a part of having a secret club” pointed out Isco, “and it’s not _me_ not wanting _you_ in the club, it’s about you not _fitting_ in the club. Not everybody can be a member…we have rules”

“Oh yeah?” ask James mockingly, kicking the side of Isco’s bed though all that got him was an injured toe “What kind of rules?” he rolled his eyes to match his tone.

“Important rules” shot Isco indignantly, “for one; you have to be born in the 90’s”

James, who was still unclear on the exact members of the secret club, immediately scratched most of the team out of the list, leaving: Dani, Nacho, Illara, Varane, Jesé, Toni, Medran and Pacheco as possible members.

“I’m born in the 90’s” he said matter-of-factly.

“It’s not enough” Isco cut him off, “we need somebody who has guts… and you… _don’t_ ”

“Yes, I do!”

“No, you don’t. You’re a great guy and you hate getting in trouble!” said Isco, adopting a patronizing tone, “last time you got a yellow card, you almost cried”

“I don’t hate getting in trouble; I’ve been in serious trouble. I’m badass!” James puffed up his chest in order to appear bigger and somewhat more threatening. He didn’t succeed. “And I wasn’t crying, somebody kicked grass into my eye”

The boy scoffed. “You know who’s a badass? Toni, he’s badass. Remember that time somebody replaced Sergio’s shampoo with hair dye? It was Toni’s audition to get into the club. He suffered an hour long interrogation, not only without cracking but he also managed to somehow convince Sergio that it was his fault the hair dye got in the shampoo bottle. Toni is badass, you’re vanilla”

Isco’s words as if stabbed James straight into his fragile heart.

“I’m not vanilla” he cried, “and I can prove it” James stretched himself into his full height “I’ll audition like Toni did”

“You?” Isco couldn’t help but laugh, “You want to audition?”

James ignored his tone.

“What do I have to do, I’ll do anything”

An evil smile spread across Isco’s face.

“Anything?”

“Anything!”


	2. James did a bad bad thing...

“Not that!” James jumped backwards, crushing at the videogame system in Nacho and Dani’s room. The two boys along with Isco had just announced James his challenge in order to become a part of their secret club.

“What happened to ‘ _I’ll do anything_ ’?” Isco imitated James’ determinate voice from one hour ago.

“Anything doesn’t mean suicide!” shouted James on the verge of tears.

“Don’t be so dramatic” Dani rolled his eyes, “all you have to do is steal the captain’s armband from Iker and replace it with this” he raised a little plastic star for everybody to see. That star was apparently some sort cheesy trademark for their ‘secret club’.

“Why Iker?” cried James, “why not anybody else?”

“Because you’re rationally scared of him” smiled Isco, “which makes it so much more fun for us”

“That’s not fair; you only did this so I don’t get in the club” James’ hand narrowly missed Nacho’s eye as he pointed at Isco, wagging his finger at him.

Isco didn’t even try to deny the accusation and instead gave him a thumbs-up.

James bit his down lip, his entire face screwed in concentration, weighting the entire situation he now had found himself in. If he chose to do the prank he would automatically win the respect of his teammates, prove he was not a coward and become a member of a secret club… _but_. There was a but. There always was a but. If he got caught, the president, the manager, the staff, would all be terribly disappointed in him. Not to mention the yelling he would receive from Iker and he had to admit that Iker was one intimidating man.

“Fine” he concluded after a short moment of silence. “I’ll do it”

“Atta boy” Dani clapped him on the shoulder and handed him over the plastic star, “you got twenty-four hours”

 

* * *

 

 

James was lurking around the facilities of the academy, preparing himself mentally for the heist and watching players and members of the staff passing through him, each minding their own business.

The armband was as always located in his Captain’s locker, unless there was an away-game, then it was packed by the staff and moved to the stadium. Thankfully that wasn’t the case, his only problem was Iker.

The Captain was still in the building. His training usually ended later than of the other players, especially on a pre-match day and unlike him, Iker always took the chance to stay an extra hour in the shower as it was the only quiet time he could get in a normal day.

“James!”

All of the sudden a familiar voice coming from behind him, made him spin around in pure horror.

“I thought you’d be at the hotel by now…” said Benzema, wrapping his arm around James. “You need a ride back?”

Damn, despite being Varane’s best friend, Benzema wasn’t born in the 90’s; hence he didn’t know about the secret club, nor his mission. He had to lie. He never lied.

“No…” he mouthed, “I…I—” no matter how much he racked his brains it was impossible to find a reason as to what he was doing in the academy at that time. Benzema could see right through him, everybody could—he was guilty.

Benzema smiled.

“You want to train some more?” his smile grew wider as he watched James’ face change into a expression of polite confusion, “there is no need to be ashamed, practice makes perfect, especially if you want to stay Cris’ golden boy” he winked at the boy, “and don’t worry, I won’t tell the others”

“Thanks…?” James choked on the question mark, “thanks…”

He watched as Benzema resumed his way to the exit, completely unsuspicious. Was it really so easy to lie to people? Was he now a good liar? What a confusing day.

James jerked out of his thoughts the moment he heard steps come up the staircase that lead down to the locker rooms. There was only one person down there at that time, and it was the one person who shouldn’t see him there.

Sure enough, Iker slowly made his way up into the corridor. He looked round him but James was no longer there to be seen. The boy hid himself behind a smoothie counter and only wished that his Captain wasn’t in mood for some strawberry deliciousness. For his good luck, Iker couldn’t wait to go to his hotel room, one that he shared with nobody –to Sergio’s great displeasure, and left without the slightest intention to question young James Rodriguez, whose head he could clearly see popping from behind the counter, as to why he was avoiding him.

Pleased with himself and his criminal skills and feeling like a complete badass, James stood up and ran towards the direction Iker had just come from.

“Why is this so easy…” he kept wondering as he let himself inside the Real Madrid locker room, simply by pushing the door to the side. “It shouldn’t be this easy…”

Iker’s armband predictably enough was located in Iker’s locker, which was also unlocked at all times. Of course the logic behind that, was that Iker knew all too well nobody in his right mind would dare touch his stuff.

The locker creaked open and there it was, the armband, conveniently placed on top of a whole stack of Iker’s jerseys.

“Either I’m so good, or this is too easy…” muttered James, taking hold of a the armband and replacing it with the star.

James exited the room, feeling very uneasy. He had just succeed his mission without any hold backs or troubles. It shouldn’t be this way. His audition for the secret club should be legendary…not vanilla. He should do something spectacular that everybody would be talking about years later. He should set an example for the next generation of all the club members…

James stopped walking half way through the corridor. A second door caught his attention.

It was the visitors’ locker room. Usually that door was wide open, unless it was a pre-game night and all the items and jerseys of their opponents had already arrived and arranged, then the door was locked, especially when their opponents was Barcelona.

 

* * *

 

 

“Gentlemen!”  James burst inside Nacho’s room without knocking. He knew that every club member was inside playing videogames and waiting for him. “I did it!”  He took a theatrical bow in front of them, as they all clapped and whistled.

James lifted this head, accepting the embraces of Nacho, Toni, Dani, Varane and Jesé. Isco stayed behind, a smile of absolute pride stretching from one side of his face to the other.

“Where is the armband?” Varane asked first, frisking James’ pockets.

James let out a hearty laugh.

“I don’t have it” he announced, every inch of his face glowing with self-admiration.

Varane, who was the only one still hugging him, suddenly let him go rather stiffly.

“What do you mean you don’t have it?” he asked, “where did you put it?”

James smirked.

“I replaced it with Xavi’s”

He expected everybody to laugh.

They didn’t. They all looked petrified.

“You…you did what?” asked Dani, hoping and wishing from the bottom of his heart he didn’t hear right.

James couldn’t understand what the big deal was. It was almost as if they all shared a piece of information that he didn’t.

“I stole Iker’s armband and replaced it with Xavi’s” he repeated, hoping to get a laugh out of them this time.

“Oh fuck” Isco sat down on the bed and the rest hurried to join him. They felt sick.

“What happened?!” James was now getting a bit annoyed by their peculiar reaction.

Dani shook his head.

“You stole the armband of Barcelona’s team Captain, right before el clásico”

“I know” James smiled, unable to hide his pride, “not bad for a coward, huh?”

“Yeah, good job” Isco clapped mockingly, “You may have just started a national incident…”


	3. James does a much worse thing...

“Is there a chance they might not notice?” asked Nacho optimistically.

“Sure, if they all go blind at the same time, there is a small chance they might not notice” Dani’s realism came to crush Nacho’s optimism, almost in the same manner the Barcelona players would soon come to crush all of them, once they figured out that Real Madrid has stepped a foot inside their locker room.

“I don’t get this, so what that I got into their dressing room?” James threw his hands in the air, “what’s the big deal? We do that all the time” for as long as James could remember, he and his teammates would always visit their rivals before and after the game for a quick chat.

“Not with Barca!” Illara screamed at him, “They won’t even drink our water because they’re afraid it might be poisoned!”

“In their defense their fear is not completely irrational…” muttered Jesé guiltily.

James’ jaw dropped.

“You guys poison their water?” he shivered with disgust.

“Not us!” yelped Varane, highly offended by this unfair and false accusation. “Let’s just say there is a long list of horrible things those two clubs have done to each other, decades before any of us was ever born”

“So what happens if they find out I was there?”

“Not much…there is going to be a small evacuation” guessed Isco “Pepe might punch somebody, Suarez will bite back…and just fuss for nothing”

“Then since they won’t know who did it, Iker will take all the blame, because it’s his armband and he’s the captain, so he always takes the blame for everything…” added Nacho.

“And then Iker will interrogate us one by one” sighed Illara, that part he knew better than he’d like.

“Actually Sergio will do the interrogation, Iker will just… _glare_ ” Dani corrected him, “and trust me kid, they always find out who did the crime—”

“Ok…” James could feel a panic attack coming his way. How on earth could all of this be his fault? The worse thing he had ever done in his life was cheat on a chemistry test on 7th grade…and he confessed. “So we need to get the armbands back and switch them again…”

“Are you insane?” Dani barked at him, clearly Sergio’s influence rubbing off no him quite nicely. “That’s like double suicide!”

“Not if we succeed” retorted James, “we can fix this!”

“He’s right” said Isco before Dani had the chance to argue again.

If Isco knew even half of all the things that would happen in the next couple hours, he would probably think twice before siding with James on this one. One moment, the naïve Malaga prodigy was standing unsuspectingly in Dani and Nacho’s room and the next he was tip-toeing across the stadium along with James.

Retrieving Xavi’s armband from the Real Madrid locker room, turned out to be just as easy as stealing it in the first place, in fact it was so easy that made them both feel uncomfortable about the poor security the entire building seemed to possess.

“Shit” Isco groaned, “it’s locked” he lightly kicked the door of Barca’s dressing room, as if that was going to magically open the door.

“I know. I locked it…” James rolled his eyes, elbowing his friend out of the way.

“You stole the key too?” cried Isco, watching James pull a shiny key out of the pocket of his jacket, “is there anything else that you stole and forgot to mention? Let’s say…umm some trophy, some player maybe…?”

James ignored him; he was too busy unlocking the door.

“Open the lights I can’t see anything” complained Isco once they both got inside the room and shut the door behind them.

“We can’t, somebody might notice” James rolled his eyes again, but this time Isco couldn’t see it, otherwise James would end up with a knee injury he wouldn’t be able to explain to Ancelotti, “I brought a flashlight”

“You know what? That new you; is scaring me…” Isco smacked the flashlight away from him, as James pointed the light directly at his eyes.

“Shut up, we’re almost done” James scanned the entire space trying to remember which one of those lockers belonged to Xavi. “And here we go” he finally read Xavi’s name on top of a locker at the back of the room.

Isco expected his friend to run as fast as his legs could carry him to Xavi’s locker and replace back those armbands in order to leave before anybody took wind of their horrendous crime. He was wrong.

James remained rooted to the spot, not a single muscle in his body moving towards the target.

“ _What are you waiting for?_ ” he hissed at James who acted as if he didn’t exist. “James, if you’re trying to take revenge from me for calling you a coward, you succeeded. I’m the coward now let’s go!”

“We can’t go, not like that” once again James blinded Isco with the flashlight as he turned to look at his friend, “if I put the armband back, it’ll be like I didn’t audition for the club and I won’t be a member”

Isco jumped up and down, pulling his own hair out of frustration and biting his lips till they bled, fighting against the urge to scream with every last bit of power left in his lungs.

“ _Will you shut up about the stupid club!_ ” he screeched in a high pitched voice, in fact it was so high that it could only be heard by dogs. “Give me the armband, I’ll put it back!”

“I can’t, I promised myself to do something as cool as Toni, something like—”

But Isco had lost his temper before James could finish his thought. The boy dived forward, seized his friend around the knees and brought him down crashing to the floor.

“Give me the armband!”

The two boys wrestled in the dark as James’ flashlight slipped right off his hand and rolled all the way to the other side of the room.

“Not before I think of something else!”

“Don’t be an idiot!” Isco had finally managed to get himself on top, holding James’ hands pinned against the floor, while at the same time trying to frisk his pockets for the armband.

“I can make it!”

Isco ‘OUCHED’. His voice echoing around the walls of the entire room.

James had just bit him and before the younger boy could process it, he found himself face down with James getting up and now going for the flashlight.

“Take that.  I’ll see what I can do here” he pulled Xavi’s armband out of his pocket and threw it down on Isco’s chest, who was still lying on the floor, having completely surrendered and almost ready to accept all consequences of their latest actions.

Isco didn’t move and from the floor he followed with his eyes the dim stream of light coming out of James’ flashlight. James stopped at another locker that wasn’t Xavi’s and without even the necessary hesitation snapped it right open.

“You have got to be kidding me” he cried, forcing himself up so fast that he became dizzy, “what the heck are you doing?”

James went through the locker for a short second, before pulling a jersey out of it. The jersey unfolded itself, revealing the name written at the back of it, “Suarez”.

Isco, turned his eyes away from his friend as if looking at what he was doing, was making this an even worse crime. Instead, he chose to do the job they were there to begin with. Switch back the armbands of the two Captains.

“Hold this” James threw his phone over at Isco, who caught it in midair thanks to his good reflexes, “I need you to take a picture” he pointed at himself. He was wearing the Barcelona jersey with the number 9.

“Jesus Christ…” muttered Isco, his mouth wide open from fear and utter surprise. “You can’t be serious…if anybody sees you like that you might as well kill yourself”

“Relax” laughed James, “I won’t put it on my twitter for everybody to see. This is for the guys to prove that I’m not a coward”

 James turned his back at Isco and chose a thumbs up pose, so the name and number on the jersey were in first view for the picture that Isco was about to take.

“ _I hate you so much_ ” muttered Isco several times, while capturing that special moment on James’ mobile phone. “ _I hate you so very much_ ” he said finally, trying his best not to laugh after seeing the picture he took. “You better wish this doesn’t get leaked, or else—”

Isco’s voice died in his throat as two other voices coming from the corridor, outside of the dressing room, reached his ears and steadily became clearer and clearer. They were busted.


	4. A club Legend

“Get out of here! Go to the next one!” growled James in a whispered voice.

Isco ignored him and continued stuffing himself inside Suarez’s locker, where James was already barely fitting, leaving the two boys glued on each other, holding their breath as the steps drew nearer and nearer.

“If we make it out of here alive, I’ll kill you” was the last thing Isco said, before the door creaked open, the lights turned on and two pairs of shoes walked inside the room.

“Are you sure it’s in here?” asked Iker’s hoarse voice so close to the boys’ hiding spot that it felt as if their Captain was speaking right through their ear.

What was Iker doing in the Barcelona locker room at that time? What was Iker doing in the Barcelona locker room at any time? Wasn’t that a crime as much as it was Isco’s and James’ presence or there was some loop hole to the rule when it came to the Captain, but most important question was who was he with?

“For the last time, somebody must’ve mixed it up and the staff brought it here” answered a second male voice, completely unfamiliar to James, but not Isco who all of the sudden lost every last bit of color off of his face and appeared to be on the verge of fainting if he had enough space to support that action.

“It’s Xavi” he mouthed voicelessly at James, who immediately wished against all hope he wasn’t still wearing a Suarez jersey.

Xavi opened the locker at the back of the room that belonged to him and after sparing a moment to look around it, thankfully Isco had already returned the real armband, he pulled a book out of it.

“This one?” he held it for Iker to see.

“Thank god” Iker exhaled, “Sara would kill me if I lost it”

“Mmm… there is no greater pleasure that to die in the hands of a beautiful woman” Xavi smiled and handed the book over to his friend, “it’s early” he glanced down at his watch, “want to go for a drink?”

Iker nodded absentmindedly, “sure, but first I should go check on the kids”

James and Isco exchanged a terrified look, their hearts racing.

Xavi snorted.

“Should I remind you that the ‘ _kids_ ’ are all 20-something year old _men_?”

It was Iker’s turn to snort.

“Should I remind you half of the things we’ve done at their age?”

Xavi blinked several times.

“I should probably go check up on mine too” he concluded.

“Wise” intoned Iker.

“Isn’t it weird how well they communicate?” wondered James quietly, completely awestruck. He knew that Iker and the captain of Barcelona where childhood friends, he just never had the pleasure to witness it, and especially from such an exclusive position.

“Shut up” Isco elbowed him in the chest, causing James to let out a painful growl that he didn’t manage to drown.

For their sake, James screamed out just as Xavi was shutting his locker. The sound of the metallic ‘clang’ overshadowed James’ little yelp, but not too efficiently for an ear as trained for mischief as it was Iker’s.

“Did you hear that?” he turned round on his heels, scouting the entire perimeter like a sniper targeting his next victim.

“No…” muttered Xavi, looking confused, “like what?”

“A little girl’s voice…” said Iker skeptically, still glaring suspiciously at the lockers and particularly the one James and Isco where hiding in.

“Oh, a little girl’s voice?” repeated Xavi seriously, “did she say, ‘ _come play with us, Iker’_ ” he added, alternating his voice to what he thought creepy-female-serial-killer-children sounded like, “because I don’t think you should go play with them”

“Ha-ha” Iker snapped out of his Sherlock Holmes mode, “are we going for that drink or not?”

“I’m not sure you need a drink, you already hear voices” Xavi kept his same sarcastic tone as the two men fought their way out of the room, “you’re getting old, bud”

 

 

* * *

 

 

Soon as the two men left the room, Suarez’s locker sprang wide open and a non-pulsed Isco flew out of it, followed by an equally terrified James.

“How do we get back before Iker?” asked James, almost tearing the Suarez jersey from his chest and threw it back in the locker before shutting it with a violent thud.

“Not a chance” Isco kissed hope goodbye, “the others will have to cover for us” he ran to the door, “at best we must get there before Iker figures out they’re lying to him” he put his hand on the door handle and pulled.

“That should give us a good twenty minutes” said James, optimistic about Dani’s ability to lie.

“Count again” said a hoarse voice.

Isco had just pulled the door open, reveling Iker, standing at the doorframe without Xavi in sight, his hands crossed threateningly over his chest.

“We can explain!” Isco yelped, throwing his hands in the air in a ‘don’t shoot’ manner before he even had the chance to process what was happening.

“You better” hissed Iker, the familiar vein throbbing on his temple, sign he was seconds away before committing a messy and violent murder. “But not here” he reached for each boy’s ear and dragged them out of the Barcelona locker room and along the corridor, all the way to his car outside in the parking lot.

“Ouch…Ouch…” Isco kept complaining the entire way, “Iker, this looks worse than it actually is, in fact if you hear the story you might think it’s funny” he attempted to laugh but it came out sounding more like a particularly nasty cough.

“Make me laugh” Iker released them both, pinning them against his car.

“I…I…” years of speech therapy went completely out the window the horrifying moment James found himself in front of his Captain, attempting to confess.

Iker stopped him.

“I know _you_ didn’t do anything” he snorted as if even the idea of James doing something out of order was ridiculous to him. “I was talking to this one” he glared at Isco.

Turns out Iker had the same effect on Isco as he did on James.

“W…w…what?” he stuttered in disbelief. This was so unfair. He was innocent, probably for the first time in his entire life.

“You heard me” Iker placed his hands on his hips in attempt to appear more intimidating. He succeeded. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed all the little pranks you and Dani have been pulling recently. Now what? You tried to mess with Barca? That’s not only stupid, it’s also unprofessional”

Isco’s stomach dropped. Not unlike James he hated getting in trouble, especially with Iker whom he admired ever since he could remember himself.

“I…” he tried hard to explain himself.

“It wasn’t him” James cut him off, putting an end to his friend’s misery. “It was me. I asked him to help me” he looked up to face his Captain, his voice steady.

Isco turned to look at him so fast that his neck gave a cracking sound. James would confess.  

Iker eyed him suspiciously for a second but seeing as James was determinate to take all blame; he decided to allow the boy to explain himself.

“I’m listening” he crossed his arms over his chest.

“I…I…I” James started again, “I decided to stay back and train some more before the game” he said, knowing that if Iker wanted he could check that information with Karim to whom he gave the same lie, “and as I was down in our locker rooms, I heard some noise…” he continued.

Both Iker and Isco were looking at him with utmost interest and confusion.

“…I thought it was Nacho and Isco but I didn’t want the team to find out I was training late so I hid. Some guys came inside the locker room but it wasn’t Nacho as I thought” James gave a dramatic pause, “they were from Barcelona.  I heard them, they wanted to pull a prank and replace your captain’s armband with Xavi’s”

Iker slightly lost his balance and fell a small step backwards while Isco looked on the verge of either hysterical laughter or hysterical weeping.

“Which Barcelona players were there?” asked Iker once he recovered from the news.

“I don’t know…” muttered James, all he wanted to do was to lie himself out of trouble not pass that trouble to any Barca player. “I couldn’t see them?”

Iker didn’t appear convinced, his brains trying to come up with names capable of pulling a prank of this sort. “Was it somebody from the National team? Was it Pique or that punk kid, Bartra?”

“No!” Isco yelped in sync with James.

“Oh yeah?” Iker folded his arms in a very I-got-you-now manner. “How do you know it wasn’t them? You just said you didn’t see their faces?”

For a short second Isco thought about pointing out that the Spain NT players were afraid of him just as much as the Real Madrid ones and would never do anything to get on his bad side, but he quickly waved that thought away and simply hunched his shoulders.

“It didn’t sound like them…” explained James, forgetting to mention that he didn’t have the slightest idea how either Bartra or Pique sounded like since he never met them before.

Iker nodded that explanation good for the time being and resumed the interrogation, “and how exactly did you end up in Barca’s locker room with this genius over here?” he indicated Isco.

“Well…” James began again confidently, after first calming Isco down with his best ‘I-got-this’ glance. “I knew that there would be a great problem if those armbands were changed so I went back to the hotel and asked Isco’s help to change them back” smiled James, a halo the only thing missing from his otherwise perfectly innocent expression.

Iker didn’t look too content, his years of experience were sensing that there was more to that story being so brilliantly presented to him by the little James Rodrigues, and he was just about to ask another question, when James put a hand in his pocket and pulled out Iker’s real captain’s armband.

“We were about to put this in your locker when you caught us” he said truthfully.

The boys were done. Despite his senses warning him Iker was beaten, there was proof and nothing he could do about it but accept the story and free the boys.

 

* * *

 

 

The time was almost nine and Iker left the boys in order to meet Xavi at the hotel for a much needed drink while Isco and James were instructed by their captain to return to their room and not dare to step a toe outside till it was morning and time for breakfast.

“You’re such a shameless little liar” commented Isco once the two friends were alone.

James ignored the insult, he had other things in his mind.

“You think I’ll be a member now?”

“Son, from this moment on you’re not just a member, you’re a club legend”


End file.
